Nine of the new destinations are in Europe and will be served from Newark Liberty International Airport or Washington Dulles, while Okinawa, Japan, will get new nonstop service from San Francisco. Eight of those 10 destinations will have no nonstop service from any other U.S. airline, according to the press release.
Where is United flying next?
United’s new destinations include Ibiza and Valencia, Spain; Marseille and Toulouse, France; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Luxembourg City; Terceira in Portugal’s Azores; Olbia in Sardinia; Catania in Sicily; and Okinawa, Japan. Several are the kind of smaller, more distinctive destinations that traditionally require travelers to connect through places such as London, Paris, Madrid or Rome.
“We’ve added flights to nearly 60 new international cities in the last decade, building a global network with the breadth and reach to set travel trends and inspire even the most discerning travelers to discover somewhere new,” Patrick Quayle, Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances, said in a statement. “When someone visits our website or app to start planning a trip, they’ll be amazed by where United can take them.”
And they may be amazed by the experience of the journey itself, too.
For many of the European routes, United will deploy its new Airbus A321XLR, a long-range, single-aisle aircraft designed specifically to make what the airline industry calls “long and thin” routes — long flights with comparatively fewer passengers — economically viable.
What it’s like inside the new Airbus A321XLR
United’s ‘Born to Explore’ Airbus A321XLR will support United’s service to Ibiza, Luxembourg, Marseille, Toulouse and Valencia. The aircraft can carry around 200 passengers, which is considerably fewer than a typical wide-body aircraft, allowing United to open nonstop routes that might not generate enough demand for a larger plane.
But fewer passengers doesn’t mean that the airline is paying less mind to modern comforts; in fact, the opposite is true. United’s A321XLR has 150 seats across three cabins, including 20 Polaris suites with privacy doors and 12 Premium Plus seats (16 more premium seats than the Boeing 757-200). Meanwhile, 36 Economy Plus seats offer up to 34 inches of legroom, while a dedicated row includes an open middle seat with a shared console. Another 82 seats (and a snack bar) will make up the economy class.
